I really liked BFA, but I think for me it hits a bit differently. Towards the end, I got into RP on Moon Guard in the 10th fleet. It also gave me Drustvar, and my characters are based there. I have so many Kul Tirans, and tidesage/guard characters.
As a casual, azerite armor was a lot of fun and felt special + essenses were peak. The zones were so cool and the faction war story was broad, fun, and impactful to play through and used the setting well, minus the Sylvanas parts turning out just to be SL setup
The worst thing about BfA imo was that they chose to keep major storylines hidden (n'zoth and the Sylvanas/jailer thing) = unsatisfying for players. Secrecy fuelled speculation about how the faction war + old god storylines would combine (they didn't) and built hype around possible twists = let down
Eh, the leveling zones were disproportionate in effort. IMO Alliance got the better deal. Zandalar was a big misfire and it’s so cringy having the Wakanda reference. Sylvanas is my fav character and her writing in BfA was so bad it put a stain on the expac for me.
I loved questing in every zone and it felt like there was so much detail and the music was great and yeah gotta be my favorite for just the settings for an expac !!
I feel like they did a lot of set up of like introducing you to the new zones too with the cinematics and everything that really put the Wow! factor In it
BfA is polarizing. It has some extremely good stuff, and some of the worst stuff in this franchise. And worst of all, a lot of missed opportunity even if Kul Tiras and Zandalar are good (mostly missed opportunity with Zandalar)
BFA permanently disconnected my core circle of friends from the lore. WoW became “let’s just play with our WoWish OC action figures, we can’t trust this place” as soon as she said “burn it.” I am still engaged, but I lost so much, and those disconnected friends aren’t obligated to forgive, ever.
If WoW was a Dungeon Master, the Burning of Teldrassil was, for us, the uncommonly self indulgent session where said DM learned the hard way that they aren’t entitled to the players returning. That’s how BFA felt: the game went from a world we loved to a set of systems and transmog to putter with.
We literally wrote “the nightelves escaped to our D&D world and of course didn’t all die” into our campaign to heal our community that met in WOTLK. The existence of Void Elves were the only thing that got me (again, the only one of us playing for most of BFA) through it.
I quite enjoyed a lot about mechagon. My only real complaints were how quickly world quests negated the rewards from LFR and Normal mode raids, and I'm still not a fan of Mechagon.
I get people's complaints about Azerite Gear, but I enjoyed it. *shrug*
That main story is just too much of a stain on the entire game for me to overlook it sadly lol
Which sucks because Kul Tiras is one of my favorite continents and 8.3 genuinely was really fun, but I’m just not able to enjoy the whole xpac in a “turn my nerd brain off and ignore MSQ” kinda way
Also really do wish the level of care in the continents wasn’t so lopsided, because it’s *really* clear that more love was put into cultural polish and worldbuilding with Kul Tiras compared to Zandalar.
Both of them desperately deserved a full-on Old God xpac, and not faction war messiness.
I understand that there are people who enjoyed BFA and I'm happy for them. It made me more upset than anything since. I think that's why I actually kinda enjoyed Shadowlands. I was that happy it wasn't BFA.
For me it's all about story. A lot of Shadowland is disconnected from the main story - and that was something that people didn't like - but after what BFA did to Sylvanas and the Horde over and over again I was happy for a bit of distance.
There's definitely something to be said about how good an expansion is to play when current vs. how good it is when you can enjoy it as just a story without time-gating, gear chasing and system bloat... that said though I don't think I'm ready to forgive BFA for robbing us of so many could-be expacs
There were parts about it I liked, but sadly I think it's still one of my most reviled expacs alongside WoD because the faction war story particularly felt so damaging to the setting we're still feeling it's effects years later.
The Old God/Kul Tiras/Zandalar specific stuff was cool though.
I've always been a big BfA defender, I feel like later patches were too grindy, but Kul Tiras has one of my favourite questing experiences.
+ Island expeditions were fun
+ I kinda actually liked Warfronts
+ Fucking love boats. Boats very good.
i enjoyed the faction war and I would have LOVED to have done some fun, super tense horde/alliance RP but it wasn't meant to be 😔 i doubt we'll see that content again since it didn't seem popular, so i missed my chance
I am always the outlier among my friends because BFA is one of my favorite expansions. I might even like it a teeny bit more than Legion. The story was punchy and polarizing. Was it *great*? Not always, but it had some killer moments. The cinematics, both the CGI and in-game model ones were
STUNNINGGGGG and they don't do them like that anymore. But there was bite to the story. I enjoyed the Faction conflict at the time. There was drama. It felt like there were real threats on the line. The zones and their individual stories were fantastic. It gave us Zandalari and Kul Tirans
And other races/countries that had been mentioned in lore and expanding them and bringing them in instead of creating something new. People have strong opinions on Vulpera roleplayers but the vulpera themselves as a race were MADE for the Horde and were a great addition imo.
The story didn't always hit, but man it was so fun and nail biting at the time. I was always excited to see what would happen next. Hindsight and time has changed some of my opinion on certain story plots but overall I still think it was good.
Azerite armor and the amulet was ass. But >
The dungeon designs were fun and so was the raid!! BoD was a super fun raid!! (Uldir? Ehhh)
But Nazmir?? G'huun corruption?? Nazjatar?? The mechagnomes?? BANGERS. I stand by it.
And maybe I'm biased because I had some of the best times and rp I've ever had as a roleplayer during BFA and it was the first expansion I really pushed both PVE and PVP hard-core but. Idk. I fuckin love BFA and all the lore that came with it.
Kul Tiras single handedly inspired me to write humans in wow, and dinosaurs in zandalar remain peak design. BFA may have been weak in a lot of ways, but it offered a ton of hooks and story that resonate still!
BFA was ending when I joined WoW and I liked the first half of it a lot. The first half (or less) is pretty much as far as I could get before the SL pre-release XD
it wasn't bad, i just wish they didn't cram three expansions' worth of stories into a single expansion. The repercussions of the sword, Azshara/Nazjatar and N'zoth/Black Empire all had way too little screentime by virtue of being single patches
The story was a bit ehh at points but I loved the music, the zones, the overall aesthetics and of course all the void stuff. BFA gave us void dragons and I love that.
for real!! i hated bfa when it came out and put down the game, but i just did all the zandalar content for the first time over the last 2-3 years and oh my god it HITS!! they absolutely cooked with the zone design in that expansion and it's all so full of fun things to discover!! so worth revisiting
If it weren’t for Azerite Armor alone, I genuinely believe Battle for Azeroth would be well regarded enough for people to be demanding it receive the remix treatment after Legion.
Zandalar is so good, i just have personal beef with the story but the ZONEEEES ARE SO PRETTY ( and Stormsong's rolling green hills with all the flowers and the bees, ugh )
i remember actually being freaked out when I had to go into Nazmir the first time
I’ve been cruising through the BFA meta, and while I’ve gotta say I’m mixed on the patched zones, the original continents of Zuldazar and Kul Tiras are seriously incredible. I love every single zone wholeheartedly.
I always figure it’s about 5-10 years before everyone “always loved that expansion.” I noticed it first with Mists. I remember all the complaining about dailies and “too friendly story.” By the time Legion was ending, Mists was universally beloved. BFA is just about in that part of the life cycle.
In addition to all the usual stuff I love about BFA, we don’t talk enough about how well they pulled in a ton of the existing wow cast & gave them things to do in the war effort. Similar to Legion class halls, I love when returning minor characters cameo for additional development or story focus
It's not a matter of time, tbh. It had a LOT of stuff going for it, but Azerite sucked as a mechanic and went all but ignored narratively, Kul Tirans and Zandalari played little to no part in the "OLD GOD!!! okay it ded" plot, the sword was ignored, and the Sylvanas plot started here.
Plus, grinding cloak stuff (which has ruined the Vale again, lmao), introduction of diapergnomes (the not-as-cool mechagnomes), the lore implications of Pandaren still being in the Horde after they invited the Zandalari, lack of class raid sets, and probably more I'm forgetting.
We're getting close. There was a time I thought NO ONE would claim to like Cataclysm, and yet. There was a time I thought WoD was loved by no one and yet...
I saw a Reddit thread a few weeks ago where peeps were making very impassioned defenses of WoD, BFA, and SL!
Comments
But the war campaign did sooooooo much damage to the game and it’s community man
At a time where I felt like crap and vulnerable, it took my happy place, burnt it, and laughed in my face.
Though I admit I am biased, BFA was when I really started playing WoW 🥰
I get people's complaints about Azerite Gear, but I enjoyed it. *shrug*
Which sucks because Kul Tiras is one of my favorite continents and 8.3 genuinely was really fun, but I’m just not able to enjoy the whole xpac in a “turn my nerd brain off and ignore MSQ” kinda way
Both of them desperately deserved a full-on Old God xpac, and not faction war messiness.
N'zoth should of lasted longer then "Release and die"
But my feelings on BFA are more then one post truthfully.
Every expansion has at least some things that are great.
just like they did with MoP back then.
😢
I love BfA. My top xpac with MoP and Legion.
But it did not have the best of gameplay desgin
To me at least bfa was somewhere in the middle.
The Old God/Kul Tiras/Zandalar specific stuff was cool though.
At least BFA had content! And it had horrific visions which I really enjoyed.
Honestly if it wasn't for the first two patches, the faction war stuff, it'd probably rate so much higher for me.
+ Island expeditions were fun
+ I kinda actually liked Warfronts
+ Fucking love boats. Boats very good.
i joined the RP scene in BFA but it was awfully scary to admit I liked the story at the time for obvious reasons.
Azerite armor and the amulet was ass. But >
But Nazmir?? G'huun corruption?? Nazjatar?? The mechagnomes?? BANGERS. I stand by it.
Content? Decent
Alt friendly? FUCK NO!
Zones? Peak
BFA gets a solid 6/10
BFA suffered due to coming off the heels of something like Legion, which I’d still rank higher.
But like most things, you don’t know how good you have it until it’s gone…. And you get sent to ShadowLands…
Drustvar tho ♥️♥️♥️
i remember actually being freaked out when I had to go into Nazmir the first time
plus i loooove the music in Boralus
Zandalar remains my favourite continent in game
(I have opinions about what Blizz did w trolls and culture but that’s seperate to the look, feel, music etc of the zone)
enough time has not passed 😔
But that might be because the old god/void/kul-tiras stuff is definitely something I am very biased in favour of <3
I saw a Reddit thread a few weeks ago where peeps were making very impassioned defenses of WoD, BFA, and SL!
I'm an easy book to read in that regard but having Rexxar back really just made me happy. I want more of that.